Drop Your Mask
by Senden Villeneuve
Summary: When Sarutobi orders Naruto to drop his mask of stupidity, and be his true self, Naruto drops his mask, revealing the real Naruto, for better or worse. lightning/wind based Naruto *Adopted From N B Higham with permission*
1. Chapter 1

Sitting in Sarutobi's office, Naruto was very nervous. Only two hours ago, Naruto had stolen the Forbidden Scroll, containing the most dangerous, difficult, secret jutsu of Konoha. He had seen through Mizuki's half-assed deception, but playing the part of a fool, Naruto had taken the scroll anyway, actually hoping to learn something from it.

And he had, but the shadow clone jutsu was not what Naruto had wanted to learn, he had been hoping to try and learn several elemental jutsu, which proved to be pointless as Naruto couldn't even form elemental chakra. But seeing the huge opportunity before him, Naruto had done something.

*Flashback*

Settling down into the clearing with the Forbidden Scroll, Naruto unrolled the scroll, revealing dozens of jutsu, from destructive elemental jutsu, down to forbidden healing jutsu. Naruto knew what he had before him, the best chance for him to become a ninja without the academy, copy down all of the jutsu that interested him onto a separate scroll, and keep it very hidden, as this was way beyond stealing it, copying it would get him in jail for sure, even if Naruto begged that he thought it was part of the secret way to pass, he was told to learn a jutsu, not copy down several jutsu from the scroll.

Within twenty minutes, Naruto had finished copying down the description of how to control lightning chakra, and copied seven lightning jutsu down, because lightning was the coolest choice for jutsu to Naruto. As well as that, Naruto copied down how to do something called "Tree Walking" and "Water Walking," simply because it would be cool to walk on walls, or walk over water.

Looking back at the scroll, Naruto saw "Shadow Clone Jutsu." 'Well I might as well learn this if I can't do normal clones.'

*Flashback End*

Hiruzen sighed as he looked at Naruto, a very faraway look in his eyes. It took Hiruzen a few seconds before he focused back in on Naruto, "Naruto, I am going to be frank with you here. Since you succeeded in stopping a C rank traitor from departing the village with the scroll of all of the forbidden techniques of Konoha, Iruka saw fit to grant you status as a genin of Konoha, which I also see fit. But I also know that you did know that what you were doing wasn't some super-secret way to pass the academy, and I know that you did not only learn the shadow clone jutsu from the scroll, I know that you copied down several things from the scroll. I need to see what it was that you copied down, now."

"I didn't copy-" Naruto began to splutter to play the part of an oblivious fool.

"Do not try my patience here Naruto, I know you copied down things from the scroll, and you will show me all that you copied down right now. That's an order." Sarutobi had a 'no bull shit' attitude, completely dead serious, somewhat startling Naruto, it was a huge contrast from the friendly, grandfatherly figure he had seen previously when Hiruzen would visit him.

"Al- alright." Naruto reached inside his orange jumpsuit, reaching into a hidden inside pocket to pull out the scroll he had used to copy things from the Scroll of Seals down onto. Tentatively, Naruto held it across Sarutobi's desk, "Here, I didn't take anything that seemed too important I swear!"

Taking the scroll, Sarutobi unrolled it in front of him, spreading it out all the way open. 'Hmm, the lightning style basic practice, two E-level lightning jutsu, a D-level, three C-level and a high B one too. Well I guess since that none of these are forbidden knowledge, it is okay, as well as tree walking and water walking, which should also be okay. It seems that Naruto may have planned to get caught, I doubt that this is all he copied down.'

Rolling the scroll back up, Sarutobi held it back across the desk to Naruto, "These are okay, nothing is forbidden knowledge, it seems that while you could not resist taking some things, you didn't take anything too big, which kind of brings me to the next matter I would like to talk to you about Naruto."

Taking a deep breath, Sarutobi looked at Naruto's relief filled eyes, as Naruto realized he wasn't being punished for copying from the scroll. Exhaling slowly, Sarutobi began, "As a ninja of Konoha, I need you to be using all of your full potential, so I need you to do something that may be very difficult for you to do Naruto. I am going to need you to drop your mask."

Faltering for a second, Naruto got nervous again, "I- I do not know what you mean Jiji, I don't have-" Naruto was cut off as Sarutobi spoke all business again, "Naruto, you know what I am talking about. You can't live behind a false you, pretending to be a class clown, an idiot. You are a one of a kind genius Naruto, and I know it. You do not have to be a prankster, a loud mouth or a joker to gain people's attention; you can earn it by your hard work, as people recognize you for your work."

A swift change went across Naruto's face as he did drop his mask, his eyes furrowing and a frown forming on his face, "It is not that I hide myself to gain attention Hokage-sama, it is because I am afraid that if villagers saw me as a genius, beyond what they can imagine, that they would not ignore me, but jump to the conclusion that the Kyuubi was influencing my mind, or just controlling me for me to be as smart as I am."

Sarutobi nodded, "Yes but be that as it may Naruto, from now on, as an official ninja of Konoha, you are allowed to strike a civilian if they strike you first in an unprovoked assault. No more of those hurting you in a drunken rage being tossed in jail for ten days, you would be allowed to hit them back, and wouldn't be punished for fighting back like a civilian would be for hitting another civilian back."

Naruto smiled, a true smile on his face, holding no hate, revenge, or sadism, but only what could be described as though someone had lifted a huge weight off of his shoulders for the first time.

Seeing the huge smile stretch across Naruto's face, Sarutobi misinterpreted it, quickly speaking again, "But that does not in any way mean that you can hit a civilian unprovoked, or with excessive force Naruto."

Sensing Sarutobi's concern, Naruto assured him, "No, I am smiling because now I do not have to wear this fucking hideous god-forsaken orange jumpsuit anymore! The last time I tried to wear normal clothes I got beat to hell because the drunken fools could see that I had some decent muscle tone, and beat me up for that too, no letting the demon brat get stronger right? So I have had to wear this god awful jumpsuit to cover up my muscle, and it had to be bright orange so it fit in with the character of my mask."

Sarutobi frowned, genuine sadness on his face as he looked at Naruto with a tear in his eye, "I am sorry Naruto, so sorry for how you have been treated, ignored, overpriced, thrown out, even beat up at least once a year on your birthday. Even with all the Anbu detail that I have assigned you, almost all of them would never do anything to help, and claim to have not seen a thing."

"Don't worry Jiji, I have never blamed you for not trying, because I know how much you have tried to do for me, and I am grateful because you are the only person that has ever helped me." Naruto smiled at Sarutobi, another true, genuine smile that warmed his heart to see Naruto smile a real smile, not a fake one that he had seen for the last nine years since Naruto truly stopped smiling.

Sarutobi smiled, "I wouldn't say I am the only one to help you Naruto, Kakashi was one of the Anbu who would watch out for you, and when he was on watch over you, nothing ever happened to you for the four hours he was on duty. And your large stipend comes mostly from Jiraiya of the Sannin, the sensei and student of the Yondaime Hokage have taken care of you as much as they could, for what he had to do to you thirteen years ago."

Solemnly, Naruto nodded, "Then please thank them for me Jiji, I always thought you were the only one who ever did anything for me, except for Iruka-sensei."

"Naruto, there are thousands of people here that owe you their lives for holding back the Kyuubi in you every day." Sarutobi stood, and walked around to where Naruto sat, where he wrapped his arms around Naruto in an embrace, speaking into his ear, "Good night Naruto, be at the academy tomorrow at ten AM for team assignments, and do not forget, even tomorrow, I need you to drop your mask, be yourself, because your sensei is going to need to know the real you, not a fake trouble making dead last slacker okay?"

Pulling away from Sarutobi's embrace, Naruto tried to cover up his surprise at the warm gesture, and spoke, "Yeah I will Jiji, even If it will be different not being someone else for once, but I cannot wait to just finally be able to go full out and show everyone how good I really am, even show myself how good I am. I still do not know how no one figured that I was smarter than I seemed when I could run away from ANBU for hours and set up pranks that would even work ON ANBU level shinobi."

Hiruzen laughed, "Most people wished to think that you were nothing but the mask you put up to others, it took me a long time to see the real you under your mask Naruto."

*Twenty Two Minutes Later*

Walking around the corner towards his apartment building, Naruto heard too late, the sound of a group of drunken men hanging around the entrance to his apartment. 'I can ever just have a nice day can I?'

A large fat man with an ugly goatee and mid back length light brown hair pulled back into a ponytail saw Naruto first, "Ahhh look at who it is guys! Iss the demon brat lookin' all high an' mighty tonight!" The heavy slur in his voice was matched in all five of the others' voices, all six very clearly wasted out of their minds.

At once, they all started to run at Naruto, and out of reflex, Naruto had taken ten steps running back before he stopped. 'I do not have to take this crap anymore, fuck these drunken bastards, I am going to show them I am not some weak little boy for them to beat up because they need to vent.'

Planting his foot, Naruto pivoted back to turn back towards the group of drunks, the fat one leading the way as Naruto planted his foot, and launched himself at him, his right fist smashing into his throat with all of the force Naruto could put behind it.

The man fell to the ground clutching at his throat, as Naruto smoothly rolled over him, dropping low as he stopped, sweeping his leg out and tripping one other guy over, hearing the satisfying crack as the back of his head smacked the road. Rolling right to avoid one man's clumsy kick, Naruto grabbed the leg and continued rolling, pulling the man over, letting go as the man got launched into the air, sailing six feet before he landed face first onto the road, probably chipping teeth as he bit the road hard.

The fourth man launched a punch at Naruto's face when he tried to stand, which Naruto deflected to the left with his right hand, then bringing his right elbow up to the man's face, smashing in his nose as Naruto heard the cartilage break with an audible "crunch."

The last two guys had been standing back from the fight, believing that four full grown men were more than enough for the Kyuubi brat, as it had always been when they ambushed him as he tried to get to his apartment. Seeing their friends all lay out on the street, all groaning in pain, the two both felt fear as their drunken minds quickly both same to one conclusion.

"It- it is the DEMON! It has finally come for us! RUN Imako, forget THIS, I am GETTING AWAY FROM HERE!" One man turned and ran away, running down the street, as his friend "Imako" just stood there.

Sensing that the man was frozen in terror, at the "Kyuubi" coming back, Naruto got an evil idea. Pushing a slight amount of chakra towards his throat, Naruto let out a demonic sounding growl, as the chakra amplified the sound, sounding as if a giant beast had roared, not a thirteen year old boy. Now Naruto could see the wet spot in his pants as Imako pissed himself, before running away, screaming in terror, "THE DEMON IS BACK!" Over and over as he ran he screamed, much to Naruto's amusement.

"Hahahahahahahaha!" Naruto couldn't help but laugh out loud at that, before looking back at the four men that lie groaning on the road. 'Eh, whatever, not like they exactly would have helped me out.'

Ignoring them, Naruto instead walked up his stairs to his apartment, opening the door to his apartment, Naruto looked around at the apartment. 'Ramen cup covered floor, ramen cup covered couch, ramen covered counter, ramen cup covered stove, yep, I really wish I could eat something other than damn ramen.'

Author's Note

Hello, this is Senden here, and this a story that was originally written by my friend N B Higham, that I was given permission to repost and continue because he has quit FanFiction, because he is working on his own original story. I will be reposting all four chapters that he already has published, and once I have done that he is going to delete his copy from FanFiction.


	2. Chapter 2

Drop Your Mask

Chapter Two

*BEEP BEEP BEEP* Groaning as he rolled over, Naruto smacked his hand onto his alarm clock, turning it off as he kicked at the sheets restricting his legs. Freeing himself from the sheets, Naruto yawned as he stood, and stretched. Within two minutes, Naruto was in the shower, sighing as the hot water ran over his body.

As his mind finally woke up, Naruto almost shouted when he remembered the previous night, nearly singing to himself, he yelled "NO MORE ORANGE FUCKING JUMPSUIT! NO MORE GETTING BEAT UP BY WASTED ASS HOLES! NO MORE DUMB MOTHER FUCKING CLASS CLOWN NARUTO! FUCKING FINALLY I CAN BE MY KICK ASS SELF!"

Of course, this had everyone in the apartment block yelling back at Naruto to shut up, or go die in a hole as someone yelled. Hopping out of the shower, Naruto dried off, before heading over to his closet, pulling out some decent clothes that were a hundred times better than the dreadful orange jumpsuit he had had to wear before.

Naruto pulled out black cargo shorts, with three large pockets on each side, as well as a slim fitting red tee shirt. Within another three minutes, he was in his kitchen, flipping through all the cupboards looking for something that was not ramen.

After sustaining himself off of ramen for the last five years of his life, Naruto had a huge addiction to it, but he knew he should eat much healthier food, even if ramen is cheap. Finally he found what he wanted, cereal. Digging through his fridge, Naruto frowned as he saw that his milk was well past expired, dumping it out into the sink.

'Guess I am eating cereal without milk then.' Naruto poured a bowl of cereal into a bowl, pulling out a spoon from a drawer as he sat down at his table. In another ten minutes, Naruto was ready to go, closing and locking his apartment door as he headed off to the academy.

Looking at a watch on his left arm, Naruto read the time, "SHIT! Nine thirty already, I will have to hurry then!" Naruto took off at a quick jog towards the academy, breathing evenly after he had been running for twenty minutes straight, making Naruto think to himself, "And who says running from Anbu level ninja is stupid? I can run like this all day!'

Naruto laughed to himself at that, finally thinking about what his day would be like, who his sensei would be, and who his teammates would be. 'I hope I get Shikamaru on my team if they don't put him, Choji and Ino on a team together, he is a smart dude. And maybe Hinata, she is not as bad as Ino or Sakura, even if she does really like me a lot. Or, my mask, if that is not me really.'

After another five minutes, Naruto finally pulled into view of the academy, thinking about his future sensei as he ran through the doors, tearing down the hallways as he raced to make it to the classroom before ten.

Slowing down as he reached the hallway leading to his classroom, Naruto took a second to even his breathing, and slow his heart rate down. 'No sense coming to class looking like an idiot who is late, I am so sick of pretending to be an idiot, and I cannot wait to rip Sakura and Ino a new one if they even yell at me.'

Stopping before his door, Naruto slowly pushed the door open, stepping into the room. Immediately the only thing Naruto could hear, was Sakura and Ino screaming at each other about who would sit next to their precious "Sasuke-Kun" today. Taking pity, Naruto slipped by the two raging girls, quietly sitting down next to Sasuke, nodding to him as he sat down.

Sasuke nodded back, showing his thanks for protecting him from the hormone raging teens. But then Sakura and Ino noticed that "Their" seat by Sasuke was taken, by Naruto no less. Needless to say, both Ino and Sakura were enraged.

Sakura spoke first, practically spitting in Naruto's face, "NARUTO! GET OUT OF MY SEAT BY SASUKE-KUN!"

Ino looked all tough too, "YEAH! What do you think you are doing taking MY seat by SASUKE-Kun!"

Sakura turned on Ino at that, "INO-PIG! It's MY seat by Sasuke-Kun today! I beat you through the doorway fair and square!"

Naruto droned out at that, doing his best to block out the banshee's screaming as he leaned over to Sasuke, "Dude how do you seriously put up with these bitches every day?"

If Sasuke was surprised to hear Naruto call Sakura a bitch, he didn't show as he ignored Naruto, staring at his desk as if nothing else mattered. Naruto scoffed, "Well damn dude, there must be some amazing shit on that desk."

Again he was ignored, as Naruto looked away from Sasuke to see Sakura's fist heading DIRECTLY to his face. In a flash of reflexes, Naruto grabbed Sakura's fist with his left hand, heaving backwards as he threw Sakura off balance, off her feet, sending her sprawling on to the ground.

Looking down at Sakura, Ino blinked stupidly, trying to figure out how Sakura went from punching that Naruto-baka in the face, to on the floor in less than two seconds. Then she realized that Naruto had pushed her over, even if he did it in seconds.

"NARUTO-BAKA! HOW DARE YOU PUSH SAKURA OVER LIKE THAT! YOU CAN'T HIT A GIRL LIKE THAT!" Ino snapped at Naruto in a second, seriously pushing Naruto's buttons, as he knew he could put aside his crappy mask, and not take the bullshit lying down.

Naruto stood, getting in Ino's face, "OH! WHO AM I TO BLOCK HER FIST AS SHE TRIED TO PUNCH ME IN THE FACE? Who am I to not let myself be punched in the face because I sat in a fucking seat! And I DON'T CARE if she is a girl! She tried to hit me for NO REASON! I am JUST FINE defending myself because YOU TWO like to play "WHO'S THE BIGGEST BITCH"! NOW GO SIT THE FUCK DOWN!"

Cringing back, Ino was on the verge of tears as Naruto just picked her apart, his insults and accusations hitting home hard. Slowly, she backed off, turning to go sit in one of the back seats, Sakura following behind her after she stood up.

It was at that moment everyone was looking at Naruto, when they all realized something. HE WASN'T IN AN ORANGE JUMPSUIT! Dressed in the form fitting red tee shirt, it revealed his rather impressive arms, built like he was weight lifting in his spare time. His shorts showed his calves, which were huge, comparable to what you would see an Olympic runner have.

Even Sasuke looked at him, recognizing the muscle to show that Naruto did work out, and train, unlike what he thought before, thinking Naruto was an idiot, and a clown who had the worst grade in the class. Shikamaru was also surprised, seeing the muscle Naruto had hidden under his horrible jumpsuit all these years.

This was of course when Kiba spoke up, "And who do you think YOU are Naruto! Yelling at Ino like that. What does a change of clothes make you feel all tough today DOBE! You shouldn't even be here; I do not even know how you got that headband."

Turning to Kiba, Naruto was still irritated when he spoke, "Oh so it was okay for Sakura to try to punch me in the face! Or for Ino to yell at me for not letting Sakura hit me in the face? And I have never even changed Kiba; I am just tired of trying to be a nice guy all the damn time! And I got this headband because I EARNED IT! Now shut the fuck up and mind your own damn business."

Kiba did nothing but glare at Naruto, for the entire three minutes before Iruka walked into the classroom, calling out a greeting to the class, again congratulating everyone on passing, again. "Hello class, I am glad to see everyone here today, and I am very proud to congratulate all of you for earning the right to be put onto your genin teams, under a jounin sensei.

I would like to get right down to it, as the first senseis should be arriving in about fifteen minutes. First off, team one…" Naruto spaced out as he waited to just hear his own name called, finally hearing Iruka call out "Team Seven, Naruto Uzumaki, Shikamaru Nara, and Ino Yamanaka. Your sensei will be Kakashi Hatake."

"Alright Shikamaru, but damn it, it had to be Ino, right after I snapped at her and made her cry too. That could be a- WAIT! KAKASHI! THE YONDAIME'S STUDENT! YES THIS IS GREAT! If I want to be great, who better than the student of the greatest of all time? Well, maybe the one who had trained the greatest could be better, but I will take what I can get.'

"Team nine is still in circulation, so we go on to team ten, Choji Akamichi, Sasuke Uchiha and Hinata Hyuuga. Your jounin sensei will be Asuma Sarutobi. Now I would like to wish you all luck with-"

Again Naruto zoned out as he thought, 'Asuma Sarutobi, He is the Hokage's son, no doubt an elite jounin like Kakashi, one son of a Hokage, one student of a Hokage. They must make two really cool senseis.'

Time Skip Four Hours

Naruto groaned as he leaned against the wall, tired from his last three hours of attempting to climb the wall using only chakra applied to his feet. After the first hour of waiting, Naruto had given up on just sitting there, so he had pulled out the scroll that had all of the things he had copied from the Forbidden Scroll, choosing the Tree Walking Exercise, as it was supposed to be a genin level ability, taught to all genin, so it should be no problem. WRONG.

It took Naruto an hour to be able to get both feet on the wall, and simply stand there, sideways against the wall. Another two hours later, Naruto could now take about four or five steps before losing the balance of chakra, and falling down from the wall.

After the first twenty minutes of their sensei not showing up, Shikamaru had fallen asleep sitting at a desk, and Ino was sitting in the farthest corner from Naruto, lost in deep thought. This still vaguely concerned Naruto, wondering if he had indeed gone too far when he yelled at Ino earlier.

His questions were answered, when Ino walked over to Naruto as he took a break from trying to walk up the wall, as she tried to apologize to him, "Naruto, I- umm. I am sorry I yelled at you. Sakura had no right to try to hit you, and I shouldn't have tried to find some way to put you at fault when you didn't even really hit her even. But then I got to thinking how awful me and Sakura always treated you over these last three years, even though me and Sakura both remember how you were the first person besides me that was nice to Sakura, back when everyone picked on her about her forehead. But then after I realized that you were always really nice to me and Sakura, we were always mean to you, for no reason. And I wanted to say that, for that I am really sorry. And I hope we can still be friends, and good teammates?"

Ino looked at Naruto pleadingly after the last part, as Naruto had sat silently listening to Ino. Naruto sighed, "Ino, I accept your apology. But I will say that it wasn't entirely your fault, I will admit that I was always a little annoying sometimes."

Shikamaru, who had woken up, and listened to Ino's apology, and Naruto's reply, openly laughed at Naruto, "Right Naruto, you were a LITTLE bit of a drag SOMETIMES. More like you were a loud mouth clown that never let me sleep in class, you were yelling too often."

This had all three Naruto, Ino and Shikamaru laughing, as Naruto reached his hand out to Ino, and they shook hands. As they were laughing, they failed to notice someone slip into the room, swiftly moving behind Shikamaru, placing a hand on his shoulder, causing Shikamaru to jump and shout, which caused Ino to yell in response.

Shikamaru thought, 'Wow, I never even noticed him come in, or even walk up to and put a hand on my shoulder!'

Ino was thinking, 'Wow that was really cool how he snuck in here like that!'

Naruto was the only one thinking, 'So this is Kakashi Hatake, student of The Yondaime himself, the last member of the Hatake clan, and an Ex-Anbu now that he has us to teach. I will have to thank him for how he has helped and protected me, when other Anbu wouldn't.'

Kakashi waved at them, while secretly laughing at the look that Shikamaru had on his face. "Alright genin, please meet me up on the rooftop in three minutes. Go." In a swirl of leaves, Kakashi was gone, all three recognizing the shunshin, as they walked out of the classroom and headed for the stairs.

In a little under three minutes, all three stood before Kakashi, before sitting down on the roof in a half circle around him. Making sure they were all there, Kakashi started, "Alright so you all have patience, and weren't yelling at me when I came in, that's good. And you all got up here in three minutes, not being lazy, that is also good."

Kakashi looked around at the three of them with his one visible eye, "So to start off with, we should all introduce our selves, and I will go first. My name is Kakashi Hatake. I do not really feel like telling you my hobbies. I do not have any particular goals. I like a lot of things, and I do not really dislike a lot. So… yeah. You get to go next Blondie."

Ino fumed at the nickname, before ignoring it, "My name is Ino Yamanaka, and my goal is to become a great Kunoichi like Tsunade of the Sannin someday. I like lavender, flower arrangements, helping in my family's flower shop, and the color purple. I do not like spicy food, and people being rude."

Kakashi nodded, as if accepting that. "Alright you next, with the ponytail."

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at that, before continuing, "My name is Shikamaru Nara, I hope to raise a family with two kids and a normal wife, while becoming the next Shinobi military tactics leader, like my dad. I like napping, cloud gazing, and walking through my family's forests. I dislike loud people, and being taken away from cloud gazing."

Kakashi nodded at that as well. "Alright and lastly, Mr. Whiskers."

Naruto laughed at the nickname, as it was quite original. "My dream is to… I think I want to become a great Shinobi, like no one else before, becoming a legendary ninja that will be told about for generations. And I like ramen, training, the time I spend with Hokage-sama, and I love lightning. I do not like ignorant people, judging people, and being bored."

There was a moment of silence before Ino spoke up, "Since we all talked about ourselves, why don't you really tell us more about yourself sensei?"

Kakashi I smiled before replying, "Because I do not want to."

Naruto smiled, "Well I know that Kakashi was the Yondaime's student, and he is an elite jounin, and possibly the strongest person in the village after Hokage-sama himself, and he was an ANBU for a long time too. So he better train us to be kick ass ninjas."

Kakashi seemed surprised Naruto knew anything about him, before he spoke, "Yes well, I have places to be, so I will meet all of you tomorrow at six AM at training ground seven, and bring all of your survival training equipment, you will need it. Oh and before I forget, do not eat breakfast tomorrow, or you will throw up. Have a nice day!"

In a swirl of leaves Kakashi was gone, leaving the three students alone. Naruto spoke first, "Well, see you guys tomorrow, I am going to go home and work on tree walking more."

Shikamaru nodded, "Yeah see you later Naruto, I could use a good nap right now." Ino was the last to depart, saying she had to get home to her family's flower shop to help out there.

As Naruto walked back to his apartment, he sent a shadow clone to go buy milk, and other food, after handing it about half his money, with the specific order, not to buy ramen. Hopefully it would manage to get lucky and find someone that wouldn't rip him off for food.

An hour later, Naruto's clone returned with groceries, putting them all away as Naruto worked on climbing a wall in his apartment. But it was as the shadow clone dispelled that Naruto realized something, he could remember walking to the store, buying milk, chicken, eggs, cheese and bread, even walking back nearly getting beat up by a fat man with long, brown hair pulled back in a ponytail, as the shadow clone ran, not wanting to ruin the groceries.

With an exciting idea, Naruto created a clone, and had it think of a number before dispersing. Immediately after the clone dispersed, the number eleven popped into Naruto's head.

'WOW this is AMAZING! I wonder if I can use the shadow clones' memory to learn things twice as fast. Maybe I should try using a clone to learn tree walking!' Following his idea, Naruto created three clones, and had them start to practice tree walking on his wall.

After waiting forty minutes, Naruto dispersed the clones, before attempting again to try and climb the wall. To his astonishment and amazement, Naruto made it all the way to the top of the wall, bumping into the ceiling, and he could turn, and walk back down, all with no problem.

'WOW! I bet I can learn all kinds of jutsu really quick like this, and get really strong too, really fast! I cannot wait to learn to use lightning chakra, so I can learn lightning jutsu! Hopefully Kakashi-sensei's training exercise tomorrow will be really cool too.'

Author's Note

So all that I have done here to this chapter is make a few small adjustments to clean up some grammar errors that I found. It is probably what I will do to the other two chapters, that will probably be cleaned up and posted tomorrow, and hopefully on Saturday I will have the first update out for you guys.


	3. Chapter 3

Drop Your Mask

Chapter Three

"BEEP BEEP BEEP" Slamming his hand down onto his alarm clock, Naruto rolled out of bed, and he was in the shower before his mind caught up to him through his still sleep addled brain. Three minutes later Naruto was sitting down with a bowl of cereal, thinking about Kakashi, and how he had helped him when no other Anbu would, and how he was now his sensei as well.

'I am so glad he ended up as my sensei, but maybe he requested to have me as a student because he wants to help me? Asuma would have been a really cool sensei to have as well; I know he would be a really strong ninja with Hokage-sama as a father.'

Checking his watch, Naruto saw that the time was 5:32, meaning he had to leave right away. In a minute, Naruto was out his door, closing and locking it behind him as he started a jog to training ground 7. In 25 minutes, he arrived at the training ground to see Shikamaru and Ino already there, Shikamaru laying down looking up at the sky, no doubt watching clouds, as Ino was sitting up against a tree reading from a scroll.

Naruto called out a greeting to the both of them, Shikamaru tiredly murmured a greeting back to him, and Ino sleepily called back a "Good morning." Walking over, Naruto couldn't help but ask, "Hey Ino what is it that you are reading?"

Ino lowered the scroll, looking up at Naruto to reply, "I am reading a Yamanaka family jutsu scroll, about the beginning technique for our clan, to read the thoughts of the person we cast it on. It is really cool that I can learn to do that, but my father said to never use it on someone without them knowing, that that is forbidden by our clan."

Naruto was intrigued, "How does that work Ino? It must be really complicated to actually read someone else's thoughts."

"Well actually, a trait of our clan is that our minds are easily capable to learn these jutsu, but no one really knows how the trait developed in the clan, but no one else can learn to do it other than people the people in our clan, that were born into the clan. But it really isn't hard for us to learn at all, my Dad said that it would not take very long at all to learn this one, and I think that I nearly have it down actually."

"So can you do it now, if we were to let you try it on either of us?" Naruto was very curious about the ability to read someone's mind, even if it could be a huge invasion of privacy.

"Well if someone is standing still, I could try to. My father can do it on moving people, but he said it is thirty times more complicated to read someone's thoughts when they are moving, but I have never tried to use it before, my dad always said I would start to learn family jutsu as soon as I could prove I could become a genin."

Naruto smiled at her, "Well then let's see if you can do it then!" Outwardly Naruto was happy and supportive, but inside he was doubtful of letting her read his thoughts, lest she discover he wasn't exactly the Naruto she thought that he was. 'It really is going to take time to completely get rid of the mask that I have worn, but at least I no longer have to hide who I am, and how smart I am.'

Ino seemed a little nervous then, "Ummm, okay well I guess that I can try it, but you will have to stand in front of me, and be very still so that I don't mess it up."

Ino stood up, walking closer to Naruto as she placed her hand on Naruto's forehead, closing her eyes in concentration as she began, "Wow! This is incredible! I can catch bits and pieces of what you are thinking, something about shadow clones and tree walking!"

Naruto help but smile as Ino opened her eyes, a beaming smile on her face, as Naruto could not help but exclaim, "That is so cool Ino!" Inwardly Naruto cringed, 'Way too over exuberant, I can't believe that I said that, a simple "That is pretty cool Ino" would have sufficed. Why can't I just act like myself?'

Ino was beaming at Naruto's praise, "So is there anything you can do Naruto? And what are shadow clones? I have never heard of them before."

Now, Shikamaru was paying some actual attention, also thinking that learning what his team mates could do, would be good for whatever Kakashi had prepared for them. "Yeah Naruto, you should show us what you can do, then I can show you guys what I can do, so we can be prepared for Kakashi-sensei's training. We should probably all know what each other can do in case he has some test for us."

Nodding, Naruto replied, "Yeah that is a really smart idea Shika, I can't believe I didn't think about that." Naruto went through the hand signs, as several shadow clones popped into existence next to him, all showing bright smiles, as they then ran to the tree Ino had sat down next to again, and ran straight up it, before back flipping off as they showed off.

Shikamaru blinked, "So are those just illusions, or actual solid clones?"

"They are solid clones, and the best part is that they transfer memory when they dispel, so I used them to learn to tree walk really fast, I got it down way faster than anyone could have normally. And there is something else that I am trying to do, it is the training technique to learn to control lightning chakra, what I have to do is focus my chakra to vibrate really fast, then I expel it through a focus point, like my fingers. Then I can control it outside of my body, once I get good enough."

Shikamaru inquired, "So can you expel it from your body yet? From what I know, it takes a really long time to learn to manipulate elemental chakra, my father said it took him years to learn to use his Earth Release."

Naruto ran a hand through his hair, ruffling it up as he tried to explain, "Well what it says in the scroll, is that I am supposed to be able to produce a little spark when I do it, but after having something like two hundred clones work on it all night, I still can't believe what happens when I try it."

Confused, Ino asked, "What happens when you do it Naruto?"

Not being able to explain it, Naruto decided to simply demonstrate. Focusing by closing his eyes, Naruto felt his chakra, commanding it to vibrate, faster and faster. After about thirty seconds, Naruto began to move that chakra, from his upper arm, farther up, and then finally to his finger tip. Upon reaching his finger, it moved out of his body, as Naruto could feel it move through the air, then "BOOM!"

In a loud clap, and a flash, Naruto's lighting chakra exploded out, flying nearly a foot before disintegrating into nothingness. The flash was something akin to seeing fireworks go off, and the audible sound was just as loud as well.

Ino and Shikamaru blinked stupidly, both unable to understand what they had seen. But they both knew, that was a hell of a lot more than a spark, that huge bolt had to have been over one hundren times larger than a measly spark, even if it didn't go far, or produce a huge flash, but it was still way more than what either of them had expected.

Shikamaru was the first to speak, "Naruto… How did you do that? That was incredible! I mean, that must have been a lot of chakra!"

Ino seemed to nod, "Yeah you must have used a lot of chakra to do something like that!"

Naruto seemed sheepish, "Hehe yeah, and shadow clones are a forbidden jutsu because they require a whole lot of chakra, so only jounin are allowed to use them, but I can use them with no problem. I can create at least a thousand of them without feeling a drain."

"That is ridiculous Naruto, how can you have that much chakra already?" Shikamaru seemed to suspect something was weird about a genin having the chakra of a jounin, but maybe it was some family thing, as he was an orphan, maybe his parents had some ability.

Flawlessly, Naruto lied, "I don't know, but it is super cool though huh?"

Ino nodded, "Yeah that is really cool Naruto!"

Grinning, Naruto asked Shikamaru, "So what can you do Shika? Or are you just a really lazy slack off?"

Standing up slowly, Shikamaru yawned, "Well other than the academy jutsu, I can use my clan's Kagemane technique, which can bind someone in place using shadows, to mimic my movements."

"That seems pretty cool as well, how does something like that work? I didn't even know that you could manipulate shadows." Naruto was again intrigued, but slightly jealous that his teammates had families that taught them family jutsu, and even had a family to go home to. Of course, none of that showed on his face, after hiding who he was for four out of the five years at the academy, he had gotten very good at hiding what he really felt.

"I can use my chakra to move my shadow, to connect to another person, immobilizing them, and forcing them to do what I do. It requires more chakra the further I extend my shadow, and more chakra the longer I hold them, then more chakra if they resist. Just like Ino's jutsu, it something that only my family have ever been able to do."

Naruto walked up to Shikamaru, asking him to demonstrate for him.

Shaking his head, Shika concentrated as his shadow began to extend, reaching out to Naruto, before suddenly, Naruto felt like something was grabbing him, as he could no longer move. 'This is really weird, I cannot make myself move any more. Definitely really useful for subduing enemies."

Naruto's eyed opened wide, "WOAH! Dude that is so cool, I cannot move a muscle!" Naruto inwardly cringed again, 'I really need to get a lid on the whole mask thing, I am annoying myself that I can't control what I say.'

Slowly, Naruto watched as Shikamaru raised his right arm, and as his own followed suit. Then his arm moved around, as Shikamaru wiggled his fingers, and Naruto's fingers did the same. Shikamaru yawned, before releasing Naruto from his control.

Naruto shook his body, as he could move again. "Well both of those are really cool, I guess that we all have our own tricks don't we?"

Shikamaru and Ino both smiled back at him, as Shikamaru lay back down, and Ino got back to her reading.

Looking at his watch, Naruto saw that the time was 6:28 AM, meaning that their sensei was late, again. "I really hope Kakashi-sensei doesn't have a habit of being late, I don't like to waste time."

Naruto began to sit down, before he noticed something that he could not believe he had not noticed. The clones he had summoned to demonstrate, had never dispelled like he had thought they would, instead they were all four, working on focusing lightning chakra out of their bodies in a spark, rather than a bolt.

'That is a good idea, if I can control the chakra enough to only let out a small bolt, then it could help with my chakra control, just the same as tree walking has.' Naruto created nearly one hundred clones, completely scaring Ino and Shikamaru at seeing the gigantic number of Naruto's that appeared in the training ground. Naruto himself began to run up and down the tree, more out of boredom than anything while his clones got to work.

As Naruto ran up and down, he had to ask Shikamaru and Ino, "Hey, do either of you know how to do tree walking? It is supposed to help with chakra control, and help improve your chakra pools."

Shikamaru mumbled a no, and Ino shook her head no. Ino was the only one to say something though, as she asked Naruto how to do it. "So how do you walk up trees like that? I can't even begin to imagine how that is possible."

Naruto replied, "It is really easy once you get the hang of it, all you have to do is put chakra into the soles of your feet, too much and you blow away from the tree, too little and you don't stick. It took me a couple of hours, but I was able to do it."

Ino stood up, and she began to tentatively put a foot against the tree, before picking up her other foot, only to promptly fall over onto her butt as she didn't use enough chakra to stick.

"Don't worry Ino, it took me a couple hours to get myself off the ground, but then it is just baby steps as you figure it out, the first steps are just the hardest."

Ino seemed to accept the challenge, as she kept trying, while Shikamaru was still lying down, complaining, "That is too much work, I would rather lay here cloud gazing."

Naruto jumped down from the top of the tree, landing next to Shikamaru as he pulled him up to his feet, "No more being lazy Shika, we are ninja now, it is time to be serious about training, it is not like your father got where he is now by sitting around watching the clouds all day. We have a responsibility now, to train and get stronger for our village!"

Both Ino and Shikamaru stared back at Naruto, shock, and admiration on their faces, at the depth, and truth to what Naruto said. It was truly a striking little speech that hit them both hard.

'Years of time that I spent chasing after Sasuke, when my father always said I should train more, that I had a lot to live up to, yet I never really realized what that meant.' Ino's eyes were wide as she realized that her father did have a very important position as an interrogator, they said he was the best. Maybe someday she could be better?

'For years my mother nagged at me, but my father has hinted before that I need to be strong, yet I never realized I wasted my time just wishing I could go away and live easy. My dad is the commander over all of the jounin in the village, a position second only to the Hokage, maybe I will have that responsibility too someday, even if that would be a troublesome drag.'

At the same time, they both thought, 'My father must be so disappointed.'

Shikamaru stood back up, trying to get up the tree, without saying a word. In an hour, it found Naruto running up and down the tree, and to Shikamaru and Naruto's surprise, Ino was able to walk up the tree, but not back down.

To Shikamaru's total surprise, seeing Ino standing at the top of the tree, waving down at him, awoke a huge desire in him to see that smile again, and to prove himself to her that he could do it too.

"Come on Shika!" Ino called down to Shikamaru, wiggling her finger at him. "If I can do it, you can too!"

Shikamaru felt a drive to run up the tree after her, so he prepared himself, and began to walk up the tree, going past where he had gotten before, to come to a wobbly stop next to Ino, as he flashed a smile at her, which caused him to mess up his concentration, and promptly fall the ten feet down to the ground, landing on his back with a loud groan.

Ino couldn't help but giggle at Shikamaru as he lay on the ground, while Naruto openly laughed at him. With another groan, Shikamaru pulled himself up to his feet, turning his head to crack his neck, he saw Kakashi bent down with his face right next to his, his one visible eye closed, as if he was eye-smiling at him.

Kakashi helped Shikamaru to his feet, a huge smile on his face. "Well this is a surprise; I didn't think any of you would take the initiative to train while you waited for me."

Naruto caught on quick, "So you were making us wait as a test? You just wanted to see if we would just wait for you, or if we would take our training seriously and not wait for you? That is actually a really sly test."

Kakashi simply nodded, "I would have expected most thirteen year olds to whine about me being late, but you all surprised me by taking the initiative, and I am surprised to find all of you tree walking, most genin don't learn that until they have been a genin for a month or more. I am curious as to how you all learned it?"

Naruto couldn't be sure, but he thought he saw Kakashi look suspiciously at him as he said that, "Well I learned it from Hokage-sama, and since we are all part of a team, I thought I should share it with Ino and Shika since it could be a lot of help to them to learn it as well."

"Well alright, it should actually help all you for what you are about to go through, which is, a test." Kakashi pulled out two bells, holding them out as he began to explain, "What you guys will have to do, is take these two bells from before noon, anyone who has a bell at the end will pass and continue on to become a genin, anyone who fails will be sent to the academy for redial training. Only nine out of the twenty seven genin that passed the academy will continue on to be trained, so I wish you good luck."

Then Kakashi was gone, leaving the three shocked genin to process what they had been told. It was Naruto who spoke first, "I have never heard of a two man squad before, it is always three, and the Hokage would not make an exception just this once, I think there is some catch to this test that we should figure out before we do anything else."

Shikamaru nodded, "Yes I think the test is really all about team work, I think that if we can work together to the two bells, and all do our parts, that we will all three pass the test. I do not think that even two of us together would have a chance, but maybe the three of us might."

Ino agreed, "Yeah that makes sense guys, but to be honest, I do not think that I would have figured that out."

Naruto smiled, "That's okay, what matters is that we do know what we have to do, but we need a good plan to get those bells." Stopping for a second, Naruto looked at the clones that were still training in Lightning Release Manipulation, and Naruto called out to them to all stop training, and dispel. Without a word, they all dispelled together, and Naruto felt a rush of information as he got over 100 hours of memories.

Shikamaru crouched down, sliding his legs to sit in a cross legged position, putting his hands together, as if he had a thinking pose. Shikamaru's eyes closed as he completely concentrated on making a plan.

"I have a plan, this is what we have to do." Naruto and Ino leaned forward as they listened to Shikamaru's plan.

Author's Note

Okay so Drop Your Mask has over a thousand views now, after only the two chapters. That is really cool. So all that I did here was clean up grammar issues, and fix a couple of mistakes that I found, and I made some minor changes. And thank you, to those who review, follow and favorite.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Naruto smiled, and nodded as Shikamaru went through his plan with Naruto and Ino. "Dude this is brilliant, have you always been this smart? You were barely ever even awake in class!"

Shikamaru yawned, "I like to sleep, and class was boring anyway. Just go along with the plan, I think that the test is about teamwork, so just show Kakashi that we can work together and this will not be a problem for us at all."

All three genin hopefuls ran off in different directions, as Kakashi watched them all from a tree. 'They all have decent enough stealth skills, but I wonder what this plan of theirs is?' Kakashi jumped back down from the tree, into the recently vacated clearing, intent on giving them all an easy shot to engage him in combat.

"You know, you won't get a bell if you are all hiding in the trees you know." Kakashi called out to the three genin that were hidden in various places around him, then he reached slowly behind him, reaching into his back pocket to pull out his favorite treasure in the whole world, Icha Icha Paradise.

Naruto was baffled by Kakashi's total lack of regard to the three of them, 'Is he really so sure of himself that he is going to read while we try to get the bells from him? I know that he is one of the village's best ninja, and that if he didn't hold back against us when we try to get the bells, he could kill us, but really? That is just really rude. But I better make my move, I have to get the plan rolling for the others.'

Naruto created 7 clones, six of them moving to surround the clearing, while one ran forward, loudly challenging Kakashi, "Come on Kakashi-sensei, I will get one of those bells no problem!" The clone ran forward with a loud war cry, intent on fighting Kakashi in taijutsu while the others moved through the trees.

Kakashi barely moved as the clone approached, even as the clone pulled his fist back and moved to punch him, he barely moved. Then as the clone's fist was inches away, Kakashi simply vanished. The real Naruto watching from cover blinked stupidly in surprise. 'He is so fast, that may make the plan a bit harder to execute.'

Kakashi reappeared behind the clone, lightly pushing him over with one hand, still reading his book. "Your technique is horrible, and you put way too much force into the punch and left yourself off balance. And if you even want a chance at getting a bell, you are going to have to come at me with the intent to kill."

The clone scrambled to his feet, a bright grin on his face, "I will show you intent to kill!" The clone moved fast, creating three other clones as the four of them jumped forward with kunai out. They moved quickly to surround Kakashi, each still clutching two kunai tightly in their hands.

As one they moved forward, the original clone moving first as he stabbed towards Kakashi's chest. Kakashi didn't even put any effort into it, as he knocked the clone backwards, twisting a little, he avoided another clone's thrust, grabbing the clone's wrist, he swung the clone around, using the clone to knock all three clones over in a pile, leaving them to dispel in a cloud.

The original clone stood back up, he still had a little juice left in him, and he could still keep the façade that Kakashi hopefully believed he was the real Naruto, "So Kakashi-sensei, you are pretty good huh? But I bet you can't take THIS!"

At the signal, the six clones that Naruto had created earlier broke cover from the brush around the clearing, each throwing several kunai, soon there was thirty kunai flying at Kakashi from every direction.

Sensing all of the kunai, Kakashi knew what his only option was, so he jumped up into the air to avoid the deadly projectiles. Little did he know, that was what Naruto wanted him to do. The real Naruto broke cover as soon as the clones all threw kunai, jumping through the air to where Kakashi would jump to, to avoid all of the kunai.

Sensing the new threat, Kakashi twisted his body in midair, avoiding the kunai Naruto would have stabbed into his back. Knowing Kakashi would dodge the kunai, Naruto swung his fist at Kakashi's head.

Seeing the fist, Kakashi reached a hand out, and grabbed Naruto's fist, stopping it inches from his face. That was when Naruto grinned, "Gotcha!" the whole time Naruto's clones had been fighting Kakashi, he had been working on a new trick.

Knowing that the lightning he emitted from his finger would be quite a shock, he had been working on expelling through somewhere else, his knuckles. Kakashi was holding Naruto's fist, and then Naruto expelled all of the lightning chakra that he could through his knuckles.

With a bright flash, and a loud crackling, Kakashi was blown backwards by the huge amount of electricity that was forced into his hand, leaving him to be thrown nearly twenty feet through the air before he recovered, landing back down onto the ground in a crouch.

Naruto was surprised by the potency the lightning had had, "Yeah! That was fucking incredible!"

Kakashi stopped for a second to think, 'That was quite the shock, I don't know how Naruto did that, but the chakra he must have used to do that with pure lightning energy would be way more than a Chidori uses.'

Instantly taking advantage of Kakashi's distraction, Ino jumped out of the nearby bushes, kunai out as she dashed towards him. Kakashi was surprised as he watched Ino approach, "Surely you saw how well the direct frontal assault worked for Naruto, what makes you think you can do better?"

"I don't know if I can do better, but I have to try!" She swung her kunai at Kakashi, not surprised to him take a step back to avoid it, she pushed forward, swinging quickly. Kakashi simply backed up, bobbing and weaving out of the way of all of her strikes, as she seemed to get more and more frustrated.

"You know, I expected better out of the three of you, all of this and Shikamaru has not once come out to try his own hand." Kakashi was genuinely disappointed, with all that he had heard about Shikamaru being just as smart as his father, he was surprised he had not made an appearance yet. 'Unless that is the plan, maybe he is waiting for his opportunity?'

Backing up smoothly, Kakashi watched as Ino's swings grow more and more wild as she grew irritated. "Why can't I hit you!" Each word was punctuated by another swing, as Kakashi continued back up towards the end of the clearing.

And then, Kakashi couldn't move. Ino stopped, now smiling widely at Kakashi. 'Well crap, I guess Shikamaru is as smart as they say, I walked right into his Kagemane. It was decently well thought out as well.'

Naruto stepped out of the brush behind Kakashi, cutting the string holding the two bells with a kunai, they dropped into his palm as he laughed at Kakashi, "We totally played you Kakashi-sensei! You did exactly what Shikamaru thought you would."

Suddenly, Kakashi could move again as Shikamaru stepped out of the brush as well, showing a smile on his face as well. "The plan was simple enough really, Naruto just had to engage you for a while, find a way to disengage and then it was up to Ino to guide you here, where I would trap you in my Kagemane jutsu, then Naruto just had to get the bells."

Kakashi smiled behind his mask, "It was a clever plan, though Naruto had a brilliant plan of his own for his part, you used your clones very well in the fight to trick and surprise me, and that lightning shock was quite the surprise."

Naruto nodded, "Yeah I expelled Lightning Chakra through my knuckles when I punched you, while it definitely did a lot more than I thought it would, it sure as hell did its job." Naruto hadn't tried expelling as much chakra he could as pure lightning, but the result was definitely impressive.

"It did a lot more than that Naruto, if I was a lesser man, a shock like that could have considerably hurt me. There must have been ridiculous amounts of chakra behind that, and I am not even sure I want to know how exactly you know how to use lightning manipulation."

Kakashi coughed, "But everything else aside, you all did a great job, I am proud of you. It was a clever plan, you all did your part, and it was great teamwork. You all pass, and I am proud to officially declare you Genin of Konoha. I will give you the rest of the day off, meet at the same place tomorrow at 7 am for you very first mission."

After his short congratulation speech, Kakashi vanished in a swirl of leaves, presumably to give the news that his team had passed to the Hokage.

Naruto smiled, "So guys, that went pretty well huh? Official genin now! Maybe we should all go out to eat to celebrate? It could be fun." Naruto looked questionably between Shikamaru and Ino.

Shikamaru shrugged, "Why not? We could go to Akamichi Barbeque, if Choji's team passed, he will be there too."

Ino was happy, "Yeah we should go celebrate and have fun, get to know each other more as a team."

The three of them walked back towards the village, a comfortable silence falling on all three of them as they all thought about the test Kakashi had put them through. The three of them all worked together well, Shikamaru was the brains, Naruto was the muscle, and Ino was the support.

In a short while, the three of them all stepped into Akamichi Barbeque, a relatively affordable, but nice grill run by the Akamichi family. Shikamaru looked around, quickly seeing his friend Choji seated at a table.

Shikamaru started to walk towards Choji, calling out "Hey Choji! Our team passed, and since you are here, I assume that your team passed as well?" Ino and Naruto followed Shikamaru's lead as he took a seat across from Choji, Ino sat next to Shikamaru and Choji scooted over to allow Naruto a seat.

Choji looked a little uncomfortable, "Well actually we did pass, sort of. Asuma gave us a test to see how well the three of us could work together. He had us defend our client, a manikin, but he said that whoever showed the most skill would be the only one allowed to pass. Me and Hinata agreed to work together to better show what we could do, so we told Sasuke he should work with us too, because we could show what we could better that way."

"He just said we would slow him down, and that we should stay out of his way. He was not going to work with us until Asuma stopped the test and said that Hinata and I had passed, because the test was about teamwork more than anything. But because Sasuke was not going to work with us, he said as a team we failed. He said that because Hinata and I passed, that we passed for now, but he says if Sasuke does not show the ability to work with us, that he will fail our team. We have a week to work together with him and if at the end of the week, Sasuke doesn't work with us, we will go back to the academy."

Shikamaru shook his head, "Wow that sucks man, Kakashi did the same thing with us, he told us that only two of us could pass, and we had to steal a bell from him to pass, but we worked together as a team to get the two bells so he said we passed. Maybe we should try to get Sasuke to see that he can work better with you and Hinata."

Naruto didn't understand why Sasuke wouldn't work with his teammates, 'Three people stand a better chance than one, that is just simple logic, why does he think he had to do it alone?"

The four of them had a good time, mostly talking about their shared experiences at the academy, and how excited they all were to be moving forward as ninja. Choji was very concerned that he wouldn't get to be a genin because he didn't think Sasuke would work with them.

When they were all done eating, and Shikamaru and Ino left, Naruto and Choji were the only two left sitting at the table. "So Choji, do you know where Sasuke is now? I think I could try to talk to him about working with you and Hinata as a team."

Choji was confused why Naruto was so interested, "Well I don't know really, but if you could track him down and talk to him, I would appreciate it. I don't want to go back to the academy because he won't work with us."

Naruto was worried about Sasuke, throughout the academy Naruto had seen Sasuke as the one to beat, so even with his mask, he had constantly challenged him, and sometimes he had even challenged him to spars, which was one of the few times Naruto had an opponent he could fight anyone and try to work on his taijutsu.

Naruto nodded to Choji, promising him that he would find Sasuke before the day was over, and try to talk to him. Getting up, Naruto walked out of Akamichi Barbeque, set on finding and talking to Sasuke.

N B Higham's Original Author's Note

AN: Okay well I don't know why I did this chapter, I don't think I am really going to continue the story, and I have another story idea I am going to write a chapter for and post. I don't want to continue Drop Your Mask, mostly because I didn't explain HOW Naruto is different, and I really think I messed the story up because I really have no plot line for it in advance. For Konoha's Swordsman, I have the next 10 chapters planned out, but for this one I have nothing. I don't think I could continue it, mostly because the whole story has been more compulsive than anything else.

I just decided to change the teams at the last second, which will have so many consequences and it will change so many things that I don't know if I want to deal with changed teams. This story is probably the one with the most response from the readers, but I don't know if I can write it the way that I have. Let me know what you think, if you like the story so far, or if you have thoughts about what I could do to turn the story around because I don't think I have really changed Naruto, he is smarter but that really is the extent of the change, he is smarter, more dedicated and much more level headed.

I just don't think that is enough of a change to really continue the story, I changed the teams with no regard to the consequences that it could have, and I regret that decision now, but let me know what you think okay?

Author's Note

So I am leaving his author's note here because it explains how he felt about the story, and it brings up the major points of the story that I have to address while I really work on the story myself. Please, send me any advice that you guys have, in a review or a PM. I am going to have to address the changed teams, and what everything is going to be like for everyone with these new teams. Sorry that no one is going to like what I am going to do, but I am likely going to stall with a few filler chapters before I can get the ball rolling.


	5. Sorry

I am really sorry to say what I have to say right now. I broke all four of my fingers about nine days ago in horrible parkour accident and I am not going to be able to write for like 10 months. I have a cast on my hand and I am not allowed to type anything. I considered having my friend write it for me, but he was not okay with that. I can't type with just my left hand, as it is my off hand, and it took me about 45 minutes to type only 300 words, and as it is, my friend is typing this right now. I am sorry for those of you who wanted my stories continued, and especially to those who were looking forward to seeing Drop Your Mask continued, as it got 4,500 views on my profile, and on NBHigham's profile I learned it had over 55,000 views. I apologize, it is kinda my fault for trying something new when my friend told me I shouldn't, but it is what it is. I apologize for wasting all of your guys' time.


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